How much income is needed to support a family on one income?

[Al_Masetti]

It used to irk some friends of mine … when folks making double what they were getting plus a very generous benefits package … and my friends got NO benefits … when those folks would complain and feel victimized … and they would complain very vocally in front of people making one-third of what they were getting.

It’s really not a biggie. Whatever you make, is fine.

But for folks to complain that it’s impossible to live frugally, … I don’t know, it’s like complaining in public … in all seriousness … that the wine list just isn’t up to par.

I once was curious how much it would cost to play golf. It was heart stopping … a real chest clutcher … I could live for a week on what one round of golf costs. I never said anything to anyone, but it always just seemed strange to me.

Someone was commenting on complaining about how a loaf of bread cost $6. My goodness. If bread is over a dollar, I do a silent conniption fit. When I realize that an egg is 15 cents, that is a pretty good deal …

Yes. I have my vices. Buying books. (Although the library has book sales for $1 per bag.) I love books.

I’d like to go back to flying … but just cannot justify the expense. So for that I’ll have to maintain a rich fantasy life. A few years ago, I had to access the backstage areas of JFK airport … and driving around with airplane engines running only a few feet away … it’s the sound of turbines whining and a whiff of burnt jet fuel … God, I love the smell of napalm in the morning ]

Or that Anthony Newley line about the roar of greasepaint and the smell of the crowd.

Anyway, I’m on God’s payroll. And as long as I acknowledge that and beg for forgiveness of my sins, then hopefully everything will be alright.

 

[Claymont79]

We live on his 55K gross with 7 kids at home. No car payment but a BIG house payment, so I guess that evens out to answer the OPs original ?

I agree with many that it all depends on your frugality and where you reside. We could not move to CA or the East coast and survive.

We don’t do a lot of extra stuff since we have a pool and lots of outdoor activities. We like to have a nice vacation every 3rd year and smaller, less expensive ones in between.

 

[deb1]

We live on his 55K gross with 7 kids at home. No car payment but a BIG house payment, so I guess that evens out to answer the OPs original ?

I agree with many that it all depends on your frugality and where you reside. We could not move to CA or the East coast and survive.

We don’t do a lot of extra stuff since we have a pool and lots of outdoor activities. We like to have a nice vacation every 3rd year and smaller, less expensive ones in between.

I live on the east coast, NC, but here it isn’t that expensive. Of course, I live on an acre of land with a 2500 sq foot double wide. You could buy more expensive homes with a lot less space and smaller yards.

I think that most of the expensive places are further north, like NJ.

 

[PowersMama]

My husband is self-employed, so our income varies year by year. Last year, it was around $37,000, but that was because I did some freelance work. I haven’t worked at all this year, since my second son, now 5-months old, doesn’t have a bedtime/dependable nap schedule yet.
We bought a decent house for cheap when we got married, so our mortgage is pretty low. We drive very old cars and try not to buy anything except groceries and household supplies. When our clothes start to fall apart, we consider buying new ones.
We also get help from parents living near by. I don’t think we’d ever get to go on dates if we didn’t have free babysitting!
We’re planning on homeschooling, partly because we can’t afford private school, and the public schools here are definitely out.
BTW, we live in Indiana–let’s hear it for low cost of living!
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[Princess_Anna]

I voted 60,000 - 70,000 based on 5 children because that is how I live I would say less for less children though.

 

[stayathomemommy]

I dont see how more children really make a difference. I mean with 4 big eaters i am starting to see the difference in my food bill but thats about it. I just can’t stand when people say they can’t afford to have more children…ok thats another subject.

when we were younger with only 3 kiddos, two in diapers my husband was a lowly marine and only made 20,000. we were able to buy a home at that time, (now a days we would have had to stay in an apartment) however i have always stayed at home. you can make it work, its more about priorities then about money. Die unto one self.

 

[maria29]

I dont see how more children really make a difference. I mean with 4 big eaters i am starting to see the difference in my food bill but thats about it. I just can’t stand when people say they can’t afford to have more children…ok thats another subject.
when we were younger with only 3 kiddos, two in diapers my husband was a lowly marine and only made 20,000. we were able to buy a home at that time, (now a days we would have had to stay in an apartment) however i have always stayed at home. you can make it work, its more about priorities then about money. Die unto one self.

I know many Catholic families who cannot afford to have another child and by doing so would not be able to provide for the children they already have. I find statements like these highly judgemental and uncharitable since you have no idea what a couple money situation is like.

We make over $60,000 a year but the cost of living is high where we live. We barely make ends meet with both of us working.I hate too how these threads always turn into if both parents work somehow its more about the money than caring about your child(ren).

 

[awantz]

I know many Catholic families who cannot afford to have another child and by doing so would not be able to provide for the children they already have. I find statements like these highly judgemental and uncharitable since you have no idea what a couple money situation is like.

We make over $60,000 a year but the cost of living is high where we live. We barely make ends meet with both of us working.I hate too how these threads always turn into if both parents work somehow its more about the money than caring about your child(ren).

I agree. My husband makes $23,000 and we have one child. We struggle to find money to buy food. I am forced to work. We spend very little if any money on ourselves. I have a monthly budget laid out and I don’t see where any of our money is being used for selfish reasons.

 

[MooCowSteph]

In my part of the country it would (and is!) very hard to make less than $50k and stay out of debt. And for us, we have a 2 bedroom house, one car, and other sacrafices. It TOTALLY deoends on where you live. In other parts of the county, a really nice house can cost $90k, and other parts, $300k gets you a shack.

 

[Youngcatholic]

This thread is very interesting to me. I live in Connecticut. It is VERY expensive to live here. To find a decent home in a good neighborhood is about $300K. To buy a new house is about $400K. My huband and I both work, earning about $120K - but it seems like we get by and have no luxuries. We don’t even have cable TV or new cars. We don’t own a home right now b/c we don’t want to have a high mortage because it is a financial trap that won’t let me stay home once we have kids. We try to save alot which will help us, but it is still tough considering the price of gas, electric, food, etc. We would like to desperately relocate to the South so we can buy a much cheaper home and have a family. It is very frustrating to us to be in CT right now, but until my husband gets a new job, we are both stuck in the rat race.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Some years ago, when my wife and I were looking for a house, we had given up. We had spent months looking and could afford nothing.

I was just reaching for the phone to call the real estate lady to call off the whole search. We were that discouraged. But when my hand was six inches from the phone, it rang. It was the real estate lady. She said to come right now. And to wear our “rose colored glasses”. The house was owned by a blind widow. And had not been touched in 20 years. The upstairs wasn’t finished. The driveway was so narrow (there was a wall on the driver’s side) that the driver had to slide in and out from the passenger’s side. The front door was one story up from the sidewalk and driveway and the steps up were just cinder blocks with a coat of cement; very very narrow treads. The electrical panel had four fuses. We had to supply all new applicances. And etc.

So we went at night to see the house and bought it. With the provision that we could come back and see it again in daytime. [We also got an engineer’s inspection.]

When he saw the photos after we moved in, my boss said that he didn’t think they made houses that small.

It took a lot of work.

But, God does intervene.

 

[Sure]

I am completely baffled at the people posting of supporting a family on less than 75K per year.

I picked the top bracket because in the midwest, I really don’t see any way around it. If you send your kids to Catholic school and own a house, that’s pretty much what you need to survive. If I made less than $100K we would be in bankruptcy.

How do you all do it???

 

[Al_Masetti]

I am completely baffled at the people posting of supporting a family on less than 75K per year.

I picked the top bracket because in the midwest, I really don’t see any way around it. If you send your kids to Catholic school and own a house, that’s pretty much what you need to survive. If I made less than $100K we would be in bankruptcy.

How do you all do it???

Frugal people.

 

[leonie]

I am completely baffled at the people posting of supporting a family on less than 75K per year.

I picked the top bracket because in the midwest, I really don’t see any way around it. If you send your kids to Catholic school and own a house, that’s pretty much what you need to survive. If I made less than $100K we would be in bankruptcy.

How do you all do it???

If I sent my five school age kids to our parish school, it would add 15,000 for tuition to our budget. If we add that much income, we’d still be way under 100,000.

We homeschool, so fortunately, we don’t have to add that much whew!

. I wonder what housing prices are in your area? In our suburban neighborhood, you can get in a smallish 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath–new house on a slab for under 100,000. It’s a good neighborhood.

Of course, if you want more bedrooms or more sq footage, or other features, you’d have to pay more.

 

[maria29]

Frugal people.

We’re extremely frugal but we still can’t afford more than one child. You can only cut so many corners. For many families there is nothing left to cut

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

I am completely baffled at the people posting of supporting a family on less than 75K per year.

I picked the top bracket because in the midwest, I really don’t see any way around it. If you send your kids to Catholic school and own a house, that’s pretty much what you need to survive. If I made less than $100K we would be in bankruptcy.

How do you all do it???

We’re extremely frugal but we still can’t afford more than one child. You can only cut so many corners. For many families there is nothing left to cut

I am **not **saying that people should, absolutely, must spend their money in this fashion!!! These are private matters where couples must come to terms in their own households.

HOWEVER- We have friends in our parish who live on about 40K a year, with 4 kids. They send their kids to Catholic school. We live on more than that with two kids at home, but certainly not $100K, more between the range of 40K to 60K, depending on what we drag in that year (self-employed). We live in the midwest, in the (obviously) suburbs of Chicago.

This is what they do, and we do:

• Have a written budget in place, and to quote Dave Ramsey, “Give every dollar a name on paper.” They might have to change some things around in a month, but by and large, we all stick with it.
• As we have income that flexes by the month, esp. January and June, we prioritize what gets paid first, with the emphasis on food, utilities, house payment, then go from there.
• No auto loans, no leases. We buy used, anywhere from 5 years older to even 15 years older for a car in the right shape, from private owners and not dealerships.
• No second or third mortgages.
• No payday loans or title loans.
• Our children wear clothes from the thrift shops and consignment shops. One would never know they do. They wear brands such as Levis, Children’s Place, Old Navy, Gymboree, American Girl, Carter’s, OshKosh, others.
• A lot of us wear clothes from the thrift shops and consignment shops.
• When I was whale size, this was not possible, and I had to buy my clothes from regular stores. I waited until the end of the season, and bought when the clothes were on double markdown.
• We don’t buy new furniture if we can help it, but used.
• We are very careful with our food dollars. In our family, we don’t buy a lot of junk food (esp.potato chips- I could eat those all day!!!). We only buy what is on sale. We have BIG freezers. We shop at Aldi and Woodman’s or similar stores when we can’t get food on sale.
• We know that the seasons and holiday control food sales. Right now is a great time to buy hot dogs, beans, chips (my downfall), buns, soda pop, mustard, catsup, mayo, relish, and paper plates.
• It will be even cheaper to buy paper plates and napkins next week, after Memorial Day, when they close out all the patriotic products. I once bought a whole grocery cart of styro cups, at a dime a sleeve. They were on closeout. I bought twenty-six sleeves. Who cares if they had holly and trees?
• We belong to a food co-op or buying club. Some belong to Angel Ministries, and some belong to SHARE. Some use both. There is also a township co-op.
• Some people hunt and fish for meat. We don’t. My big game trip consists of going to Woodman’s, Prisco’s and Butera and searching out the “Manager’s Special” freezer for really marked-down meat. But more people do this, and they seem happy with the deer, squirrel, dove, pheasant and other meat they hunt, kill,clean and butcher themselves.
• Some people buy into livestock. We don’t.
• We plan our local trips, so that we don’t burn a lot of gas (petrol) in the process. Some of us bike (I am just getting into this- and it’s hard to relearn to balance all that adult weight!). Some of us walk and take public transportation. We try to carpool on long distances.
• We do not have credit card debt. Some are dsciplined enough to pay off their credit card every month. We (my DH and I) aren’t, and have been the victim of identity theft not once, but twice. So, we froze our credit bureau activity, and have one. We do have a debit card.
• Many, but not all, are self-employed. This gives better tax breaks.
• Where possible, one spouse works part time, and one spouse works full time. HOWEVER, most of thepart time employed spouses are also self-employed, giving time with the children. These are not young families, where there are babies or preschoolers, but families where the youngest is in full timeshcool.
• We don’t go wild at Christmas.
• Some of us craft, and give those things as gifts. Some of us are deep bargainshoppers, and hunt for Christmas presents all year round.
• We plan vacations, squeezing every penny. Sometimes, we vacation “at home” which in the Chicago area is not hard to do.
• We save 5% to 25% of our income, by planning how to spend it, then investing it.
• We have emergency funds, and a family definition for “emergency” that we employ. This often curtails the necessity to obtain credit in an emergency. It also inspires great creativity to work around such situations.
• While we all like nice things, who we are is not tied to what we own. Many, but not all of us, have a stable family prayer life. God does not drop stuff or money out of the sky, but when one realizes that one is a child of God, having all sorts of stuff and things just doesn’t seem as important as it used to seem.
  A couple makes its choices. This is what we’ve chosen, and other people have chosen. Quite frankly, I wasn’t on-board at first. And it took me years to put into practice what we do now. It took me years to learn. And I’ve found that, while we’re doing pretty well, there are other things we still could learn, or wouldn’t do.

 

[Just_wondering]

Wow, OutinChgoburbs, thanks for the great post. That’s where I’d like to be in a few years. Your tips about your experience and the experiences of people you know might really come in handy for people like me who are trying to learn to budget money and live on the cheap.

Here are the things I’ve noticed that help me save money:

• I avoid places where I’m tempted to spend money. For me, there’s one neighbourhood where there are lots of stores with inexpensive clothes in the windows that tempt me. The skirt is only $30 - surely I can afford that! But that kind of thing adds up. If I haven’t set aside money for it, I don’t even go there.
• I don’t shop with friends. Other people find it beneficial to split bulk orders with friends. I don’t. If I’m with friends, I find myself more likely to indulge in things that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise.
• Make a shopping list and stick to it. If you need to, put “treat” on the shopping list and buy something inexpensive (for me, a low-fat pudding cup or gummy bears) so you won’t be tempted by more expensive things.
• Make a budget and when you go shopping, bring only the amount of money that you budgeted for.

I don’t know how helpful those tips will be to anyone, because I’m still single and only managing a household of one. For what it’s worth, though, that’s my money-saving strategy.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Thank you, just wondering. You are sure on the right track! Those are great ways to save money.

 

[Sure]

I am **not **saying that people should, absolutely, must spend their money in this fashion!!! These are private matters where couples must come to terms in their own households.

HOWEVER- We have friends in our parish who live on about 40K a year, with 4 kids. They send their kids to Catholic school. We live on more than that with two kids at home, but certainly not $100K, more between the range of 40K to 60K, depending on what we drag in that year (self-employed). We live in the midwest, in the (obviously) suburbs of Chicago.

This is what they do, and we do:

• Have a written budget in place, and to quote Dave Ramsey, “Give every dollar a name on paper.” They might have to change some things around in a month, but by and large, we all stick with it.
• As we have income that flexes by the month, esp. January and June, we prioritize what gets paid first, with the emphasis on food, utilities, house payment, then go from there.
• No auto loans, no leases. We buy used, anywhere from 5 years older to even 15 years older for a car in the right shape, from private owners and not dealerships.
• No second or third mortgages.
• No payday loans or title loans.
• Our children wear clothes from the thrift shops and consignment shops. One would never know they do. They wear brands such as Levis, Children’s Place, Old Navy, Gymboree, American Girl, Carter’s, OshKosh, others.
• A lot of us wear clothes from the thrift shops and consignment shops.
• When I was whale size, this was not possible, and I had to buy my clothes from regular stores. I waited until the end of the season, and bought when the clothes were on double markdown.
• We don’t buy new furniture if we can help it, but used.
• We are very careful with our food dollars. In our family, we don’t buy a lot of junk food (esp.potato chips- I could eat those all day!!!). We only buy what is on sale. We have BIG freezers. We shop at Aldi and Woodman’s or similar stores when we can’t get food on sale.
• We know that the seasons and holiday control food sales. Right now is a great time to buy hot dogs, beans, chips (my downfall), buns, soda pop, mustard, catsup, mayo, relish, and paper plates.
• It will be even cheaper to buy paper plates and napkins next week, after Memorial Day, when they close out all the patriotic products. I once bought a whole grocery cart of styro cups, at a dime a sleeve. They were on closeout. I bought twenty-six sleeves. Who cares if they had holly and trees?
• We belong to a food co-op or buying club. Some belong to Angel Ministries, and some belong to SHARE. Some use both. There is also a township co-op.
• Some people hunt and fish for meat. We don’t. My big game trip consists of going to Woodman’s, Prisco’s and Butera and searching out the “Manager’s Special” freezer for really marked-down meat. But more people do this, and they seem happy with the deer, squirrel, dove, pheasant and other meat they hunt, kill,clean and butcher themselves.
• Some people buy into livestock. We don’t.
• We plan our local trips, so that we don’t burn a lot of gas (petrol) in the process. Some of us bike (I am just getting into this- and it’s hard to relearn to balance all that adult weight!). Some of us walk and take public transportation. We try to carpool on long distances.
• We do not have credit card debt. Some are dsciplined enough to pay off their credit card every month. We (my DH and I) aren’t, and have been the victim of identity theft not once, but twice. So, we froze our credit bureau activity, and have one. We do have a debit card.
• Many, but not all, are self-employed. This gives better tax breaks.
• Where possible, one spouse works part time, and one spouse works full time. HOWEVER, most of thepart time employed spouses are also self-employed, giving time with the children. These are not young families, where there are babies or preschoolers, but families where the youngest is in full timeshcool.
• We don’t go wild at Christmas.
• Some of us craft, and give those things as gifts. Some of us are deep bargainshoppers, and hunt for Christmas presents all year round.
• We plan vacations, squeezing every penny. Sometimes, we vacation “at home” which in the Chicago area is not hard to do.
• We save 5% to 25% of our income, by planning how to spend it, then investing it.
• We have emergency funds, and a family definition for “emergency” that we employ. This often curtails the necessity to obtain credit in an emergency. It also inspires great creativity to work around such situations.
• While we all like nice things, who we are is not tied to what we own. Many, but not all of us, have a stable family prayer life. God does not drop stuff or money out of the sky, but when one realizes that one is a child of God, having all sorts of stuff and things just doesn’t seem as important as it used to seem.
  A couple makes its choices. This is what we’ve chosen, and other people have chosen. Quite frankly, I wasn’t on-board at first. And it took me years to put into practice what we do now. It took me years to learn. And I’ve found that, while we’re doing pretty well, there are other things we still could learn, or wouldn’t do.

Wow. I guess I have some work to do. We splurge on a few extravagances…good food, wine, an occasional meal out, vacations here and there. We have some student loans, credit card debt, and one car payment. I guess we should be rich, but we’re not. Not much in savings, etc. I’ve tried budgeting and it never seems to last. Something always comes up and ruins the budget. I have come to realize that I am a financial idiot. I need a personal CPA.

How did you start doing these things?

 

[tapiocapudding]

Sure: DH and I live on about $30k a year. It is possible, but not fun. I’m hoping it still works out once the baby is born. We certainly could not afford more than one child and will be avoiding having another until we can afford a bigger appartment. We can afford to live because we live in a one bedroom appartment, government funded health care, have no car (we walk, bike or take the bus everywhere), we don’t have cable tv or a long distance plan on the phone, we shop at thrift stores for clothes, buy store brands at the grocery store and don’t have too many expenses outside of that. With the baby, we’re hoping to breastfeed so that should cut down on costs.
When it does come time for the kiddo to go to school, we’re fortunate to live in a province which has a Catholic school board which is publicly funded! Hooray!
But yeah, it’s certainly not easy and we couldn’t afford a large family at all on this amount of money. So here’s to hoping our financial situation improves!